Jetsam ambergris, the waxy rocks of whale digestive material that wash up on beaches and are coveted by the perfume industry for their musky fragrance, have been convincingly tied to sperm whales through DNA analysis, according to a study published today (February 5) in Biology Letters.
Scientists have long suspected that the pungent blobs—which can weigh as much as 1,400 pounds—shared an origin with ambergris extracted directly from sperm whale colons, but there were no confirmations. The idea was backed up mainly by observations of the whale’s prey, such as undigested squid beaks, that accumulated in the digestive solids.
As whale populations declined between 1800 and the 1980s due to commercial whaling, it had become increasingly difficult to compare the two types of ambergris, which have different chemical compositions, reports The New York Times.
Researchers led by Ruairidh Macleod at the University of Cambridge extracted DNA from jetsam ambergris found ...
